From Strategic Coupling to Recoupling and Decoupling: Restructuring Global Production Networks and Regional Evolution in China

The global production networks (GPNs) perspective, especially its focal concept of “strategic coupling” has been widely applied to regional studies in the era of globalization. The 2000s, especially the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, has witnessed a dramatic restructuring of the governance structure of GPNs; the effects on regional evolution have, however, been understudied. Echoing to MacKinnon's [(2012) Beyond strategic coupling: Reassessing the firm-region Nexus in global production networks, Journal of Economic Geography, 12, pp. 227–245] recent plea for conceptualizing the types, degree and depth of strategic coupling in the GPNs framework, this paper postulates that regional trajectories have been reshaped by the transition from strategic coupling to recoupling and decoupling, as a result of regional selection and abandonment of transnational corporations (TNCs) in host regions in China. Based on updated field investigation and in-depth interviews during the period of mid-2008 and early 2012, this paper examines and compares the transformation of the cross-border production networks driven by Hong Kong and Taiwan-based TNCs, particularly their divergent engagements in decoupling from source regions in coastal China, e.g. the Pearl River Delta and recoupling with the inland provinces, such as Sichuan and Hubei. Particular attention is paid to the changing power relations among TNCs and concerned regions with the emergence of key supplier-led domestic market-oriented production networks in China. Through developing an evolutionary framework on strategic coupling, the paper puts forward pertinent topics on the research agenda to explore dynamic interaction between GPN restructuring and regional evolution in the contemporary global economy.     

生产网络演化视角下的城市产业升级路径研究——以汕头市纺织服装行业为例

如何根据自身经济活动所具有的空间组织特征和演化轨迹来选择升级路径,是城市政府需要解决的重要问题。本文以粤东城镇群区域中心城市汕头为例,选择具有传统优势的纺织服装产业,整合经济地理关系范式和演化范式的方法构建分析框架,运用访谈获得的企业关系数据和相关资料,分别对汕头纺织服装行业生产组织的历史路径以及当前在区域生产网络中的地位进行分析,提出汕头纺织服装行业未来进行升级的路径选择。本文在城市产业发展规划如何借鉴西方经济地理新理论范式方面进行了尝试性探索。     

Urban Food Systems and the Poor in Developing Countries

In many cities in developing countries, hunger and malnutrition are common amongst the poor, even when food is relatively abundant. Over the past two decades, a considerable literature has accumulated on the problems associated with rapid urbanization in developing countries – a literature that for the most part has neglected the important dimension of urban food systems and how these link production and consumption networks at local, regional and global levels. Similarly, whilst there is a newly burgeoning literature on global food systems, the contextual role of the urbanization process is rarely addressed. This paper attempts to fuse these two major areas of geographical investigation to highlight the issues that need to be addressed in future research programmes so that improved diets become accessible to all urban dwellers.     

Policy governance from an autopoietic perspective: revisiting Hungary’s regionalization experience

This perspective on Hungary’s post-socialist regional policy governance is informed by an approach that relates region-building and regional governance to social autopoiesis and the self-referential and self-(re)producing nature of social systems such as states. Following debates in regional studies that reflect tensions between the local constitution and external determination of regional governance, we will demonstrate how Hungary has incorporated European Union (EU) policy frameworks through specific appropriations of territorial politics and regional ideas. These appropriations reflect Hungary’s post-socialist transformation not only in terms of responses to global forces, but also as specific spatial practices and regionalization experiences. As we argue, this has in effect resulted in a regionalism without regions – a strategy of Europeanizing territorial politics without creating institutional structures that directly challenge existing power relations. Autopoiesis thus helps explain the resilience of social systems, not only their resistance to institutional change but also their capability to ‘domesticate’ external influences. While criticisms of Hungary’s technocratic and post-political regionalization projects cannot be ignored, our analysis indicates why externally driven intervention in self-organizing governance processes, for example through EU conditionality, has had less impact than expected.     

Local and Regional Development in Global Value Chains,Production Networks and Innovation Networks: A Comparative Review and the Challenges for Future Research

Globalization as a process has developed exponentially over the past 20 years, generating multiple and opposite effects for local and regional development (LoRD). This has created both new opportunities as well as raising new threats for local actors, both public and private. This special issue sets out to consider the prospects for LoRD in this context. Our aim in the introductory article is to consider how globalization may bring about LoRD. We do this through a comparative review of three critical analytical frameworks that have been used in recent years to examine the changing dynamics of globalization and their consequences for local production systems, namely global value chains, global production networks and global innovation networks. We provide an overview of these distinct approaches, identifying their strengths and weaknesses. Our argument is not that any one of these approaches is necessarily “better” than the others, but rather that to formulate a more complete and dynamic territorial perspective on regional development in the context of globalization, there needs to be an attempt at (eclectically) integrating the elements of these three distinct frameworks. The article then goes on to show how individual contributions in this special issue push forward this agenda, drawing on these distinct analytical frameworks to consider the transformative prospects for LoRD.     

重申全球化时代的空间观:后现代地理学的理论与实践

"空间"是人文地理学研究的核心概念。全球化时代,空间概念的内涵与外延都发生了重要变化。本文通过重述后现代主义哲学、当代城市与区域空间重构的社会实践、当代人文地理学前沿理论三者之间相互印证的理念与事实,重申全球化时代的空间观为空间与社会辨证统一的后现代空间观,并阐述了其对当代人文地理学研究的重要意义。     

Organising regional production networks in Southeast Asia: implications for production fragmentation, trade, and rules of origin

The globalisation of economic activities has fundamentally reshapedthe relationships between production and trade. The cross-borderproduction activities of transnational corporations (TNCs) havenot only deepened spatial divisions of labour, but also complicatedour understanding of international trade patterns. The developmentof intricate regional production networks by global corporationshas major implications for production fragmentation, internationaltrade, and rules of origin in the global economy. Empiricallygrounded in a study of regional production networks controlledby Singapore-based TNCs, this paper aims to make a modest contributionto the emerging literature on production fragmentation and rulesof origin. Based on an analysis of empirical data from a surveyof 63 parent Singapore-based manufacturing TNCs that have cross-borderoperations in Southeast Asia, I found that their spatial productionfragmentation is rather limited. Most of their Southeast Asiansubsidiaries cater to local markets, or manufacture components/partsfor the regional production facilities of their major globalcorporation customers. I also consider the implications forbusiness strategies and public policies in relation to productionfragmentation and rules of origin in Southeast Asia.     

Global Public Policy,Transnational Policy Communities,and Their Networks

Public policy has been a prisoner of the word “state.” Yet, the state is reconfigured by globalization. Through “global public–private partnerships” and “transnational executive networks,” new forms of authority are emerging through global and regional policy processes that coexist alongside nation‐state policy processes. Accordingly, this article asks what is “global public policy”? The first part of the article identifies new public spaces where global policies occur. These spaces are multiple in character and variety and will be collectively referred to as the “global agora.” The second section adapts the conventional policy cycle heuristic by conceptually stretching it to the global and regional levels to reveal the higher degree of pluralization of actors and multiple‐authority structures than is the case at national levels. The third section asks: who is involved in the delivery of global public policy? The focus is on transnational policy communities. The global agora is a public space of policymaking and administration, although it is one where authority is more diffuse, decision making is dispersed and sovereignty muddled. Trapped by methodological nationalism and an intellectual agoraphobia of globalization, public policy scholars have yet to examine fully global policy processes and new managerial modes of transnational public administration.     

MONEY FLOWS LIKE MERCURY: THE GEOGRAPHY OF GLOBAL FINANCE

ABSTRACT. If the social relations and inherited configuration of production were at the core of economic geography a decade ago, these aspects of the world are increasingly taken for granted. The global scope of industry and corporate strategy has claimed increasing attention over the past decade. And while any 'new' economic geography must have something to say about the nature of human agency and the role of institutions in structuring the landscape, care must be taken not to exaggerate their significance for constructive interaction. In point of fact, the global finance industry is an essential lens through which to study contemporary capitalism from the top-down and the bottom-up. If we are to understand the economic landscape of twenty-first century capitalism, it should be understood through global financial institutions, its social formations and investment practices. This argument is developed by reference to the recent literature on the geography of finance and a metaphor – money flows like mercury – designed to explicate the spatial and temporal logic of global capital flows. Some may dispute this argument, but in doing so they lament the passing of an era rather than advancing a convincing counterclaim about how the world is and what it might become. All this means that we have to rethink the significance of geographical scale and organizational processes as opposed to an unquestioned commitment to localities.     

Changing industrial production systems and regional development in the New Europe

The continuing expansion and deepening integration of the European Union is redefining the map of threats and opportunities for both companies and regions in Europe. In this paper I analyze the changing geography of the production system in three industries – automobiles, clothing and steel – as a product of the strategies and tactics of companies, states (at EU, national and regional levels) and trades unions, as they seek to shape geographies of production to favour their interests within this changing European political–economic space. It is argued that the end product of this process will be the creation of new and sharper forms of regional uneven development and qualitative differentiation between regions, as well as a renewed widening rather than further narrowing of regional differences in economic performance and well–being.     

Communities and Other Social Actors: Rethinking Commodities and Consumption in Global Historical Archaeology

The relationships between people and commodities, and the processes through which goods are entangled with people's lives can be better understood with a focus on the community. The concept of community offers a way to understand the entanglement of individuals and small groups with global processes. In addition, a focus on the community allows historical archaeologists a scale of analysis to consider the links between people, communities, and global networks of exchange, as commodities are exchanged in and out of local, regional, or global arenas.     

Global Media Cities in a World-wide Urban Network

This article examines the link between cities and culture from the point of view of the production of cultural goods, including media products. It focuses on the institutional structure of present-day cultural production and the media industry and on their geographical organization at the local and global levels. The cultural economy is a prime mover for globalization processes in the urban system, in which cultural production clusters act as local nodes in the global networks of the large media groups. The models frequently used to analyse the global city system will be supplemented and partially modified by an empirical analysis of the 'world media cities'. The analysis of the world media cities enables those locations to be identified, from which globalization in the spheres of culture and the media proceeds and is 'produced' in practical terms. Global city research has predominantly emphasized the role of advanced producer services—in contrast this article concludes that for the process of globalization the globally operating media firms are at least as influential as the global providers of corporate services, because they create a cultural market space of global dimensions, on the basis of which the specialized global service providers can ensure the practical management of global production and market networks.     

演化经济地理的理论基础及其在集群研究中的应用

演化经济地理主要研究经济景观的演化过程,其理论基础包括广义达尔文主义理论、复杂性理论与路径依赖理论。将演化经济地理理论引入集群研究,运用微观一中观一宏观多尺度相结合的方法,有助于深入理解集群演化的过程及其动力机制,打开集群内部的"黑箱"。微观视角关注企业惯例及其区位行为如何影响集群的演化过程与空间特征;中观视角关注集群的知识网络结构特征、企业间知识联系,与网络演化的过程;宏观视角关注集群系统的演化路径与动力机制,以及集群与外部环境的相互作用。然而,由于演化经济地理理论与方法目前尚处探索阶段,将其应用于集群研究中仍存在不少局限。最后,结合中国产业集群现状,提出若干研究议题,认为未来中国产业集群研究需要更加注重"演化转向"。     

BEYOND THE GPN–NEW REGIONALISM DIVIDE IN CHINA: RESTRUCTURING THE CLOTHING INDUSTRY,REMAKING THE WENZHOU MODEL

This article attempts to advance the research on industrial districts and regional development through a study of the restructuring of the clothing industry in Wenzhou Municipality, a regional driver of the Chinese economy. Wenzhou is known for the Wenzhou model of development traditionally centred on family‐owned small businesses embedded in local institutions. The clothing industry is one of the leading industries in Wenzhou, and a cluster with national significance has emerged, where most of the production components can be purchased locally. However, the industry has been scaled up nationally and internationally, with the expansion of sales networks and production facilities across China, and to a lesser extent, abroad. This restructuring has changed the endogenous nature of industrial clusters/districts. The restructuring challenges the orthodox notion of the Wenzhou model and the New Regionalism literature, particularly the orthodox notion of Marshallian industrial districts that overly emphasizes small firms and local assets, and the global production network perspective that highlights coupling with global lead firms in regional development.     

跨国公司地方嵌入新视角:基于地方劳工市场的研究进展与理论思考

20世纪90年代以来,跨国公司地方嵌入研究相对聚焦于资本密集型或技术密集型企业,而需要大量非熟练工人的劳动密集型跨国企业并未引起足够关注,建立在产业联系、技术外溢、社会网络等核心概念基础上的跨国公司地方嵌入分析框架很显然不能很好地解释劳动密集型跨国公司地方嵌入的理论与实践问题。在劳工地理学、新经济地理学等学科背景下,基于全球生产网络、关系嵌入、空间修复等核心概念,研究分别从劳工能动性的空间尺度、跨国公司地方嵌入的劳工要素、劳工管控对跨国公司的地方嵌入、区域劳工景观的空间修复等视角出发,系统梳理相关研究进展并提出未来主要研究议题,包括如何识别劳工供需因素对跨国公司地方嵌入的影响机制,如何剖析特殊劳工管控体制下劳工空间实践与能动性的关系,如何刻画跨国公司地方嵌入对区域劳工经济地理景观的影响,如何总结跨国公司地方嵌入与区域发展的战略耦合模式等。     

China's Shoe Manufacturing and the Wenzhou Model: Perspectives on the World's Leading Producer and Exporter of Footwear

A U.S.-based geographer and specialist on China advances his research on industrial districts and regional development by presenting a 2008 study of shoe manufacturing in Wenzhou (a major center in the world's largest footwear producing and exporting country). More specifically, the author examines how the model of economic development pioneered in Wenzhou (the Wenzhou model) has been transformed in an effort to meet the challenges posed by the global economy. He argues that the scaling up of Wenzhou's footwear industry, through the expansion of sales networks and factories across China and abroad, indicates that other adaptable city regions can overcome similar obstacles. The author challenges both the New Regionalism literature focused on local institutions and assets, as well as perspectives that overemphasize the benefits of globalization and global production networks. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O100, O140, O180. 2 figures, 3 tables, 60 references.     

Indigenous Tourism and Processes of Resilience – About Communicative Strategies among Tourism Workers in Québec

ABSTRACT

Tourism is a well-known way of life for an increasing portion of the world's indigenous communities, and it has taken tortuous paths and undergone changes in approach and meaning.

Indigenous tourism is examined here within the theoretical framework of resilience, focusing on development, communication and justification. Men and women and their perspectives on space, time and spatial relations are the crucial agents in these processes. Based on an empirical study in Québec, Canada, we show that the impact of indigenous tourism includes networks within the local community at the regional and national levels, as well as translocal networks and relationships. Communicative processes are essential for achieving resilience, communicating identity within families and the community, and giving a voice to a political project. We argue that indigenous tourism works on several geographical levels and that these levels intersect and have the potential to increase resilience if they interact. Our study supplements resilience development theory by highlighting the need to consider communities as parts of networks. It also contributes to the field of tourism research by emphasising communication on several levels.     

Regional Deindustrialization and Re-bundling: Evidence from the Merger of the Former German Hoechst and French Rhône-Poulenc Groups

large part of the work in economic geography and other social sciences has focused on new growth prospects due to the establishment of global production chains and the rise of new clusters of industrial activity. Much less attention has been paid to former growth industries and regions that have recently experienced shrinking processes due to internationalization. This paper will explore the cases of two chemical regions, i.e. southern Hessen, Germany and Rhône-Alpes, France. These two areas have both undergone drastic restructuring since the mid-1990s, due to the merger of the prominent chemical groups Hoechst and Rhône-Poulenc into Aventis. Instead of investigating the development of the core activities at Aventis, we will focus on the operations that were considered less important and consequently split off. In addition to the negative consequences produced by these activities, in our analysis we also emphasize regional opportunities which arise from competence building, reorientation and new firm formation. These processes can be viewed as re-bundling existing and new knowledge bases with other resources to help overcome economic crises and develop a new competitive edge. As such, the paper aims to contribute to a relational understanding of economic globalization and regional restructuring.     

Embracing the future: path transformation and system reconfiguration for self-driving cars in West Sweden

ABSTRACT

The past years have witnessed a surge of academic interest into how new industrial paths are developed in regions. Transformation processes of existing regional industries have received less attention. This article focuses on radical innovation-based renewal processes of established paths and investigates how regional innovation systems are tackling challenges related to path transformation. Drawing on insights from the regional and technological innovation systems literatures, we develop an analytical framework that elucidates the relation between path transformation and system reconfiguration. The framework suggests that regional innovation system elements are created or adapted to (i) target the build-up of system functions regionally; (ii) link up to system functions in other locations, and (iii) transplant system functions from elsewhere. The analytical framework is applied to a case study of the transformation of the automotive industry in West Sweden towards self-driving cars. The empirical analysis provides support for the importance of the three types of system reconfiguration and emphasises the relevance of different types of assets. Furthermore, it highlights how actors tend to utilise previous networks and positions in global innovation systems rather than turning to the development of system functions regionally as the ‘default option’ of system reconfiguration.     

Production of subterranean resources in the Atacama Desert: 19th and early 20th century mining/water extraction in The Taltal district,northern Chile

The Chilean water model imposed by the Chilean dictatorship in 1981 is broadly known as a radical example of neoliberal water management. Several studies have focused their analyses on this model, and its relation to mining, from a political ecology perspective; however, this has minimized the broader historical context. In this paper, we followed a geohistorical standpoint to gain an extensive understanding of the processes of mining development and the related water extraction in the Atacama Desert. By analyzing different official documents, historical sources and scientific discourses of the 19th and early 20th centuries, we aimed to denaturalize the idea of the Atacama Desert as hyper-arid space, rich in mineral resources. By doing so, from a political ecology perspective, and with a critical approach to territory, we interrogated the mining development in the Taltal district (1840–1920). This exercise led us to understand the Atacama Desert as a socially-produced mining territory, or miningscape, where foreign actors have produced hegemonic discourses and uneven materialities. Here, water, minerals, global markets, scientific knowledge, political and legal discourses, and colonialism have inevitably become interwoven in a territorial long-standing production process. Thus, we propose that the production of miningscapes and waterscapes are entangled process in the Andes mining territories. In turn, this process has enabled the reproduction of the Chilean state, capital accumulation, and the consolidation of a modern project at the expense of local populations and rationalities, which have been invisibilized.